Pushed Too Far
by GhostMajor
Summary: Dash catches Danny on a bad day and things turn ugly when Danny decides he's had enough.
1. Chapter 1

He wasn't sure what had gotten into him. Nothing different had happened, really; just another day in the life of Casper High's biggest loser, Danny Fenton. He had been minding his own business, just hanging out by his locker with his two best friends, Sam Manson and Tucker Foley, when the thorn in the halfa's side had appeared.

"Hey, Fentonio!" Dash Baxter yelled from across the hall.

"Oh great," sighed Danny, closing his locker with a loud bang. "I've been up the past three nights getting my butt whooped by Plasmius, last night being especially brutal, I might add; now I have to deal with him too?"

Neither Sam nor Tucker had time to say anything in support as the jock grabbed Danny by the collar of his shirt and slammed him against the locker.

"Don't ignore me when I'm talking to you, Fen-toad," Dash sneered, shoving the smaller teen against the lockers for emphasis.

Danny sighed. "I'm _really_ not in the mood for this today, Dash." As his back met the hard steel once more, a lock digging painfully into his lower back, he spat angrily, "But when has that ever stopped you before? As long as the great Dash Baxter has some amusement, that's all that matters, right?" The bully was caught off guard as Danny slapped his hand aside and pushed him back a step with surprising strength, adding, "Well, I hate to break it to ya, Dash, but your fun stops _now_".

"You're gonna pay for that, you little worm!" Dash hollered, raising a fist as his initial surprise wore off, only to come back seconds later when the smaller teen caught his hand inches from his face. Glancing around, Dash saw not only his own friends, but Fenton's friends as well, wore shocked looks to match his own. "You...how did you do that?"

Danny just glared at him, not gracing him with a reply. With his free hand, the black-haired boy shoved Dash's shoulder, spinning him around and pinning his arm painfully behind his back.

"Danny..." Sam muttered, a worried tone in her voice.

"No, Sam. I'm sick and tired of this guy thinking he can just push me around whenever he wants to. Enough is enough!" the boy retorted heatedly, eyes flashing a brilliant glowing green as he gave Dash's arm another painful twist, causing the larger boy to let out a yelp.

Looking around at Kwan and the other members of Casper High's A-List, who all bore the same expressions of surprise, Dash hollered out, "Well, don't just stand there, you idiots! Get this loser off of me!"

The large Asian boy was the first to make a move. He rushed forward, grabbing Danny's shoulder in an attempt to turn him around; and turn him around he did. Danny spun on his heel, releasing Dash and sending his fist directly into Kwan's face. He felt the crunch of bone as the other boy's nose shattered underneath the power behind Danny's otherworldly punch, before he was sent flying several feet backwards. Kwan screamed as blood spluttered from his broken nose, writhing in pain on the hard tiled floor.

"Danny!" Sam and Tucker yelled in unison, surprised that their best friend would turn his abnormal strength on a human.

At the exact moment, there was a chorus of, "Kwan!" "Dude!" and "How did he do that?" from the other group of teens. Though all seemed angry, no others from the group moved forward to avenge their fallen friend.

Except one.

Turning around with a snarl, Dash screamed, "Why you little...!" He threw an enraged punch at the smaller boy, who expertly dodged it and sent a fist of his own into the jock's stomach. Gasping as the air was knocked out of him, Dash dropped to his knees, clutching his injured gut. He barely had enough time to spit out a mouthful of blood and spittle when Danny rammed his knee into Dash's face. The force of the blow knocked him onto his back, smacking his head on the floor as he landed. Before the stars even began clearing from Dash's vision, Danny was upon him. The smaller boy sat straddled across his chest, legs on either side pinning his arms to the ground. Fists like steel rained down on him from above, pummeling into anything they could; face, chest, arms...There didn't seem to be any real destination for them, just as long as they made contact.

Danny's mind was completely blank; nothing but sheer rage coursing through him. He couldn't hear anything but the pounding of his own blood in his ears; not even the cries of he and Dash's friends for him to stop, the large crowd of students that had gathered around to watch the spectacle, or even the cry of surprise from Mr. Lancer as the teacher pushed his way through the mass of teenagers.

"The Grapes of Wrath! What is going on here?" Then as the man finally laid eyes on what was causing the chaos, or more particularly, _who_ was causing it, he yelped, "Danny! What's gotten into you? Get off of him immediately!" He rushed over to the two boys, one of which who was now fully unconscious, and attempted to pull Danny away from Dash. The small teen proved to be too strong, however, and it was a struggle just to get one arm pinned to his side.

He was relieved to see, after a moment of his losing battle with Danny, that help was finally arriving. The school police officer and a few more teachers came to the rescue, grasping the boy tightly and dragging him several feet away. In total, it took four grown men to keep him contained, which was a shocking revelation to everyone.

Also startling to the mass of people in the small hallway was the ferocity with which Danny fought, even in the hold of the adults. He was like a trapped animal; thrashing and screaming obscenities his parents would definitely not approve of as he tried to free himself from their grasp. He didn't even seem to realize that he could just escape using his ghost powers.

Finally, the officer managed to get some handcuffs on him as Mr. Lancer called an ambulance for Dash and Kwan.

All the while, Sam and Tucker watched in horror as their best friend, the hero of Amity Park, was dragged away to an awaiting police car. They knew Danny had been stressed lately, but never in their wildest dreams would they imagine that Danny would ever just...snap. It was a truly terrifying thought to think they may have just witnessed the fall of the great Danny Phantom.

Unbeknownst to the two teens, however, there was one more person who was watching, though with a much different emotion. Invisible to all there, Vlad Plasmius looked on in amusement as Danny was dragged out of the building, bloodied hands cuffed tightly behind his back. He chuckled quietly to himself. With Danny wrapped up in the legal system, he would finally be free to do as he pleased without the boy and his _morals_ getting in his way.

**A/N: So, this was a challenge from Kirbysamful to help with writer's block. And I must say, writing this has really gotten my creative juices flowing again, so thank you so much! The prompt I picked (obviously) was "Danny stands up to Dash". Though I think I turned it more into "Danny beats Dash to a bloody pulp" but oh well. :D**

**I might continue this, but I dunno. Should I?**

**Anyway, reviews are loved! :D**


	2. Chapter 2

The full reality of what he had done didn't hit Danny until he was sitting in the back of a police cruiser, on his way to Amity Park's local station. He stared blankly at his lap, his blue jeans and white t-shirt flecked here and there with specks of blood.

Dash's blood. Even a bit of Kwan's...

'_Oh man_,' he thought, feeling a heavy weight fall on his chest, constricting his breathing. '_I really hurt someone..._humans.' Unbidden, an image of the jocks' bloodied faces appeared in his mind's eye. Danny squeezed his eyes shut tight, shaking his head back and forth as if denying the truth would somehow turn this nightmare into just that...a nightmare.

'_Maybe I was foreshadowed...yeah, that's it. Poindexter must have taken over my body again and fought back against the bully...' _At least, that's what he tried to tell himself, though it wasn't very effective. Deep down, he _knew_; knew that he was completely in control of his body. No one else was calling the shots but Danny Fenton. _He_ had done that himself, and that thought terrified him.

By the time the car pulled to a stop by the police station, Danny was hyperventilating. His breath came in short gasps, his lungs feeling as if there wasn't enough oxygen in the air to fill them. He visibly flinched as the officer opened his door and placed a hand on his shoulder to lead him into the building.

Noticing the boy's distress, the man smiled sadly at Danny, giving his shoulder a reassuring squeeze. He had seen many of the things the small teen had been through involving Dash and the others since he started his job at Casper High a while back; had tried to do something about it, but because the bullies also happened to be the school's star athletes, no one would lift a finger to help poor Danny. Nor would they let him do anything about it. Partiality was an ugly thing, indeed. In all honesty, he knew it was only a matter of time before the teen couldn't take any more. He just had no idea things would get this bad...

"Relax, son. Take deep breaths...come on, now."

"C-can't," Danny wheezed.

The man, who's badge read "Officer Johnson," then wrapped his arm around the boy's shoulders, helping him out of the car and to the awaiting police station. Once inside, he ushered Danny to a nearby row of chairs with built-in handcuffs on the armrests, then freed his hands, being sure to avoid his injured knuckles.

Before he could secure the metal devices around his wrists, however, there was a startled cry of, "Daniel? What on Earth are you doing here?"

Johnson spun to see none other than the mayor of Amity Park himself looking at the pair with an expression of pure shock and confusion. "Mr. Masters, sir. You know him?" he asked, motioning to Danny at his side, who was simply staring at the white-haired man with wide eyes and looking as if he might pass out any moment.

"Know him?" Vlad asked incredulously. "Why, he's like a son to me! Now tell me, Daniel, what is going on here?"

Danny felt as if the walls were closing in on him. His breathing came out as even smaller gasps as he stared into the face of his arch-nemesis. In a voice that sounded way too small and ragged to be his, he stuttered out, "V-Vlad, I..." Wrapping his arms tightly around his chest and wincing as cloth brushed against his tattered hands, Danny couldn't help the tears that spilled out over his cheeks, staining his blood-splattered face. "I...m-messed up..."

He bowed his head in shame, his body shaking with a suppressed sob. So distraught was he that he barely registered a pair of strong arms wrapping around him, let alone that they belonged to Vlad Masters. It took Danny a full minute to regain his composure enough to feel the gentle circles being rubbed into his back.

Pulling back a bit to look up at the taller man's face, Danny tried to spot any sort of malice or hidden motive there, but there was none. Vlad was either hiding his emotions under a well-placed mask, or he was genuinely concerned. He _really_ hoped it was the latter. He was too tired to deal with an evil scheme at the moment; or anything ghost related, for that matter. Besides, ghosts were the least of his problems now...

With this thought in mind, the boy managed to say, "I got in a f-fight at school, and I...I really hurt some people. I didn't mean to though! I-I don't know what came over me!" He hated that he felt the need to justify his actions to someone as evil as Vlad, but that was exactly what he was doing. Voice raising in volume, Danny continued, "Dash and his friends pick on me every single day and I just couldn't take it anymore! They always call me a loser, and they know I can't stand being called tha-"

He was cut off by a shushing motion from Vlad. "I know they do, Little Badger. You needn't explain your reasons to me." Giving a nod to Officer Johnson, he moved around so that just an arm was around the boy's shoulders. "Come. Let's see what we can do to remedy this problem." With that, he led them to the police chief's office.

Once there, Vlad knocked on the door a few times before simply walking in. The head officer was on the phone at the moment, but quickly hung up when he saw who his visitor was.

"Mr. Masters, what can I do for you?" he asked, glancing over at the other two momentarily.

"It would appear my nephew here has gotten in a spot of trouble," Vlad started, voice grave. "I was wondering what we could to do make this all...easier."

The chief looked from Vlad to the small, cowering boy next to him, then back again. "And what, exactly, is this trouble he's gotten in to?"

Danny remained quiet as Officer Johnson stepped forward and recapped the things he had seen. After he finished, he was ordered to take the teen back out to the row of seats. Johnson sat him in a seat near the end, gently placing the metal cuffs on either side of him onto his thin wrists.

"What's gonna happen to me...?" Danny asked him quietly as he turned to head back to the office with the others.

Kneeling down in front of the boy, Johnson sat a hand upon his head, ruffling his hair slightly. "I'm afraid I don't know. But I wouldn't worry so much," he told him. "You've got the mayor himself on your side; you're in good hands."

Danny didn't feel very comforted by this. He knew Vlad was manipulative and good at getting what he wanted, but the question was: What was it that he really wanted? For all he knew, the man would do everything he possibly could to make it so Danny was locked up for the rest of his life. It would certainly make his other plans go a lot smoother if the one thing standing in his way was gone for good. Just thinking about it made the boy feel sick.

Noticing his words of comfort hadn't helped in the slightest, Johnson said, "Danny, look, he's not the only one on your side. I've been here in Amity Park for only a few short months, but in that time, I've seen how those kids have been treating you. Now, I'm not saying what you did today was the right thing to do, but...well, let's just say, I don't blame you for it".

Though the boy managed a small smile, hearing he had done wrong hurt. He was a hero; he was supposed to _always_ do the right thing. Heroes weren't supposed to be so weak as to let something like bullying tear them from their righteous path. They were always the bigger person, no matter the circumstances. He had made a promise that he wouldn't go astray from that belief. How could he have sunken so low?

His depressing musings were interrupted as Vlad eventually returned, Johnson standing upon arrival. The two men talked in hushed tones for a moment, too quiet for even Danny's inhuman hearing to pick up, before the officer gave him a, "Good luck, Danny," and a nod to the mayor before turning and heading back to work.

After thanking Johnson, Danny turned his attention back to the white-haired man standing in front of him. "What's gonna happen to me?" he asked for the second time that day.

"All in good time, Daniel," Vlad said, pulling out a pair of keys for the handcuffs. Unlocking the metal bands, he added, "Now, come along".

Danny looked at him, completely confused. "Where are we going?" he asked warily.

"Why, home, of course. We must inform your lovely mother and _idiot_ father of the situation."

Rubbing his wrists, sore and bruised from his previous struggling in the cuffs at the school, Danny stood, his feeling of confusion being drown out by utter dread and horror. He'd have to tell his parents that not only had he gotten in a fight at school, he'd been _arrested_. He was _so_ not looking forward to this.

As he followed behind Vlad in a nervous daze to the awaiting limo outside, Danny missed the evil smirk that made its way onto the man's face, a gleam in his eyes that spoke of absolute victory.

**A/N: Wow, never before have I had so many comments on the first chapter. You guys are awesome! :D**

**Now a bit of a heads up on how this will be updated: See, I don't have a scheduled "writing time" each day; I just write when the mood and inspiration hits me, so updates will be sporadic. Be sure to add this to your Story Alerts so you don't miss them!**

**One more thing, I know I always put "Reviews are always loved!" at the end of every chapter. I really do mean it. They're what puts me in the mood to write in the first place, so if you want faster updates, help motivate me! -is a terrible procrastinator- D: Nine reviews got you chapter two this quickly. Let's see how fast you can get me to get number three up here! :D**


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